Under what circumstances is false flagging your own citizens warranted?
This isn't a contingency like a plan to nuke Canada if they are on the edge of becoming communists.
This isn't a contingency like a plan to nuke Canada if they are on the edge of becoming communists.
None, in my opinion. That said, I have not considered the question deeply enough to conclude that it is never appropriate.
In any case, that isn't what the document [1] is about. Paragraph 5 mentions the "possibility" of various things. Our government should know how others within itself, perhaps with nefarious purposes, might conduct a "deception operation" against it. More specifically, ¶ 5 mentions operations in which "Soviet aircraft would appear to attack U.S. or friendly installations". Providing the appearance of something is not necessarily doing it. I also do not think false flag operations conducted against foreign countries are as ethically off the table as those against one's self.
TL; DR There are legitimate reasons for studying how false flag operations may be done.
[1] https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-3...